Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi continued to cause a stir during a Rome visit Monday by wheeling out another four busloads of young women to receive another lecture on the Koran.

Islam is “the last religion and if you want to believe in a single faith then it must be that of Mohammed,” the colonel reportedly told 200 women hired by a Rome hostess agency, some of them wearing headscarves and one sporting a picture of Gaddafi around her neck.

“He didn’t try to convert us,” said Elena Racoviciano, 21, from Naples, after emerging from a photography exhibit at the new Libyan Cultural Institute.

Gaddafi held a similar meeting with 500 women provided by the same agency on Sunday, three of whom reportedly converted to Islam.

“Women are more respected in Libya than in the West and the United States,” was another of Gaddafi’s remarks conveyed by Racoviciano.

In his first encounter with the hostesses, after an impromptu stroll around central Rome, the dictator urged them to marry Libyan men.

Gaddafi’s lectures to the women and his statement that Islam should be “Europe’s religion” have sparked opposition from Catholic and feminist groups as well as prompting accusations that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi is pandering to him.

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After many words and vitriolic exchanges, Silvio Berlusconi has reached a conclusion. Gianfranco Fini is out; he has been officially ejected from Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party, reports Corriere della Sera.

The historic break between the two founders of the PDL was formalized by a document read yesterday by the Premier in which he ejected from the party three members: Italo Bocchino, Carmelo Briguglio and Fabio Granata. “We’ve no longer confidence in Fini, who has created a real opposition in line with the left. We can’t go on as a divided party,” said Silvio Berlusconi during a press conference. “We tried every way to mend relations with Fini but it was useless. I don’t want to accept his way of criticizing our government any longer.”

However, according to the Premier  “the government is still strong and safe.” But the questions remains: what’s the future for the government and will it be able to withstand the opposition in Parliament?

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• Fini ally warns Berlusconi as confidence votes loom (reuters.com)
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“L’Aquila can’t collapse: it’s a city that knows how to fly”. This new message of hope is now written on a t-shirt  which thousands of L’Aquila wore in Rome on Wednesday as they protested against the Berlusconi government’s handling of the earthquake-shattered city. There were moments of tension: two young men were injured, and even L’Aquila’s mayor, Massimo Cialente, was struck by police batons.

Their slogan was: “It’s a shame, you’ve got golden salaries, we’ve got rubble”. Demonstrators requested that the government halt all taxation of L’Aquila residents. They also demanded a series of measures to boost employment and the economy by establishing effective procedures for reconstruction and funding. “These aren’t privileges, but fairness and rights!” shouted the demonstrators. “We’re here to defend our survival. If we return to pay taxes today, with a salary of €2000  we can put only €600 in our pockets.”

The mayor of L’Aquila, who lead the demonstrators, was received by President of the Senate, Renato Schifani. Though initially Mayor Cialente aimed to lead the protest outside the Parliament, “there was an unexpected blockade by the police,” Cialente said. “When I went to the Senate, we were in agreement that they would open a gap. It’s a shame that people are still away from home: the earthquake wasn’t enough, now the beatings.”

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• Quake victims demonstrate in Rome (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Italian earthquake victims demand more aid (guardian.co.uk)

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The new campaign slogan “Hurl Berlusconi” doesn’t come from an Italian opposition leader but from “One International”, the organization lead by U2 singer, Bono Vox, that fights for the debt relief of poor countries. The organization’s website One.org published a flash animation game that represents a hard attack against the Italian prime minister about his “false promises made during the G8 meetings.”

The site continues: “We all love a bit of fun, but there’s a serious point to the game – since promising to increase aid to Africa in 2005 PM Berlusconi has actually cut it. spanking new DATA report puts him firmly at the bottom of the class.” One.org’s game, “Hurl Berl” depicts a mock weight throw competition where the weight is replaced with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The user can grab the Premier by his feet and let him fly as far as possible. The game is accompanied by a form through which the user can ask other leaders to eject Berlusconi from the G8. The form says: “ The G8 are meeting in Canada in June. Most G8 countries have cancelled debt and increased effective aid to Africa. One man alone has done nothing. In fact Berlusconi is doing even less now than he was 5 years ago. Mr. Berlusconi should be thrown out by the G8”.

The game, however, received some criticism from online users. One user wrote:

“Promoting the image of violence toward a world leader doesn’t do anything to reduce poverty, but does cheapen your message. Don’t get me wrong: I’m no Burl fan. But the hammer throw? Really guys? Really?”

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It’s yet another Italian Euro-shame, this time at the OCSE summit in Paris, writes La Repubblica.

During the conference, while talking about the European economic situation, Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi makes an unbelievable speech. In fact, he starts to quote Benito Mussolini’s diaries while making a point: “As prime minister, I never felt I had power. When I was an entrepreneur and I had 56 thousands workers I had the feeling of having power. In a real democracy, I’m at the people’s disposal, everyone can criticize and insult me. Whoever is in this position does not really have power,” Berlusconi said. Then, he quoted the diaries which he had recently read: “I dare to quote a speech from the man who was once considered a great dictator: ‘They say I’ve the power, but I’ve no powers, maybe the gerarchi have it, but not me. I can only decide whether to guide my horse to the right or to the left, nothing else.’” Berlusconi continued: “The same happens to me, because everyone has the right to criticize and insult me…”

It’s an incredible and shameful speech. But this isn’t a rarity. In fact, this isn’t the first time in which Berlusconi quotes Mussolini. The most resounding gaffe is dated September 2003. In that circumstance the Premier said to a journalist: “Mussolini didn’t kill anyone, he just sent people on vacation in internal exile.” At that time the British journalist of “The Spectator” was astounded by that nod to fascism. But the story hasn’t changed. The Italian euro-shame continues. The only problem is: who’s the speech writer of Italy’s Premier? Berlusconi or Mussolini?

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• Silvio Berlusconi compares himself to Mussolini (telegraph.co.uk)

A few days ago, Italians voted in a sort of midterm election. We selected the governors and councils of 13 regions (somewhat weaker equivalents to the American states and to the Canadian provinces), in addition to a number of city mayors and administrators. Italian parties attributed an unusually strong relevance to these electoral challenges. Almost everybody meant them as a verdict for or against the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. His opponents had hoped that years of unceasing attacks on Berlusconi would have seriously weakened him, as he is a man they abhor personally.

On the contrary, the verdict was in favor of Silvio: to the scorn, too, of the latter’s adversaries who seem to influence an ample segment of the international media. In particular, ‘The Economist’ (long ago) and ‘Newsweek’ (last October), qualified themselves -with cover stories titled “Unfit to govern” and “Dump Berlusconi”- as  chief organs of the international community of Berlusconi-haters.

The head of our government certainly deserves a lot of very grave criticism. I myself, for what it matters, look forward to the end of his reign. But all sides of the Italian politics, including the losers of the midterm election, agree that Mr. Berlusconi has been vindicated. It’s now clearer than before that many foreign reporters and correspondents, when in Rome, are promptly attracted to the congenial, brilliant atmosphere of the bar-rooms and ‘terrazze’ where journalists, movie actors, gorgeous women, politicians and socialites mix. Most of them are trendy leftists, very good at impressing visiting newspaper persons. Dolce vita is still there.

Consequently, the visiting foreigners write articles that are often tainted by the views of their hosts and fellow revelers. Their descriptions of the Italian scene were not truthful when they suggested that ugly Berlusconi was “unfit to govern” and “dumpable”. Today, the premier is stronger than before. So much so that, presently, he is the most credible candidate to become the next president of the Republic.

Even larger has been the electoral success of Berlusconi’s main ally, Umberto Bossi, head of an efficient popular party named Lega Nord (Northern League). Lega conquered two important regional governments, Piedmont (traditionally hostile to rightwingers) and Veneto. Lega has performed the impressive feat of robbing the opposition Democratic Party, somehow the heir of the now defunct but formerly powerful Communist party, of a good part of the workingmen.

The election on March 28 offered an additional lesson: almost half of Italians did not vote, or intentionally made void the ballot slip. Non-voting is normal in America and elsewhere. Not in Italy, where voting percentages used to be around 80%, with highs, in the first years of the Republic, well above 90%. Most analysts take such a drop as a proof of serious dissatisfaction with present parties and misleading mechanisms of political representation.

Said dissatisfaction will not necessarily grow. But it could.

Massimo Calderazzi is member of the Société Européenne de Culture, to which many eminent
scholars and a few Nobel prizewinners belong.

The 2010 Italian regional elections have two winners: the turn-out (36%, an incredible amount for Italy) and the “Northern League”. The message is clear: The two biggest parties (the “People of Freedom” and the “Democratic Party”) lost votes to the “Northern League”, basically the first party in Northern Italy, and the left-leaning “Italy of Values.” Another big surprise is the “Five Stars List”, created by the comic Beppe Grillo that, in some regions, reached a high of 7% of votes.

The win for the Centre-Right coalition is clear, even by those few points. If the wins in Lombardia, Veneto, Campania and Calabria were budgeted, Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition added Lazio and Piemonte to their list of conquests (with 40 thousands votes). With six regions in his hands, the premier appears very powerful. But how powerful he really is we’ll only understand in the next few weeks. After the elections, the Centre-Right will realize two things: first, in Northern Italy only the “Northern League” can win. Second: Berlusconi’s party lost many votes everywhere, receiving only 26% of the votes (it was at 33,3 in 2008).

The left, as usual, with all its subdivisions, limps into a sea of unresolved internal problems. So, what have these elections told us? One in three Italians has moved away from politics, and that between the other two, many of them no longer believe in the established parties and seek a new way of doing politics.

The results then are clear: Italians voted Northern League for its position against immigrants, and “Italy of Values” and “Five Stars List” to send a message to the “Democratic Party” for it to wake up from the deep sleep that has tormented it for years.

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• Berlusconi Coalition Triumphs In Local Polls (news.sky.com)
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Voting restarted Monday in 13 of Italy’s 20 regions amid signs that Premier Silvio Berluscon’s fears of a low turn-out might be right.

By Sunday night the turn-out was 47.1%, about nine points below the same stage in 2005.

The fall was particularly sharp in Lazio, the region around Rome, at almost 13%.

The centre left holds 11 of the 13 regions and Berlusconi’s centre right coalition had been looking to win at least four.

But signs of a dip in the premier’s high popularity and voter disaffection have trimmed their expectations.

Berlusconi on Friday made two appeals to voters on Italy’s biggest TV news shows, on state broadcaster RAI and his own private Mediaset network.

He repeated his appeal at his voting station Sunday.

On Monday Il Giornale, a daily owned by his brother Paolo, ran the banner headline A FEW HOURS TO STOP THE LEFT.

Voting will stop at 15:00 local (13:00 GMT) with exit-polls coming out immediately and the first projections an hour later.

With some 41 million voting, the elections are seen as the first real test for the premier since his election in 2008.

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Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi is under investigation by the judges of Trani about his pressures on the Italian state televsion network, RAI, reports Corriere della Sera.

According to various wiretaps, Berlusconi had important relationships with the highest offices of state television and he put pressure on said offices to close certain programs which to him were unwelcome. Some of these programs were of a political nature and Berlusconi’s influence to gag the freedom of press and speech in Italy is now being fully revealed. One of the Prime Minister’s closest allies is Augusto Minzolini (the current director of RAI Uno’s nightly news, Tg1) who was intercepted on the phone with Berlusconi while receiving orders on which programs were to be closed.

The unfolding situation is very unpleasant and difficult for the premier who said he’s ‘outraged’ and sure that Trani’s magistrates have been ‘violating the law.’ In addition to having sent inspectors to verify the legality of the investigation against him, Berlusconi has tried to defend himself by arguing that ‘a prime minister should not be trapped at any moment.’ In other words, underlining his own desire for immunity.

A controversial ban on political talk shows in the run-up to this month’s regional elections was overturned for commercial TV Friday, reports ANSA.

A regional court (TAR) in Lazio upheld an appeal from Sky and Telecom Italia Media, parent company of Italy’s fourth commercial TV company La7.

The one-month ban, in force until the March 28-29 vote, was hotly contested by the centre-left opposition, talk show hosts, and others who depicted it as a gag order.

Italy’s broadcasting watchdog Agcom ordered the ban in compliance with equal-time rules, saying talk shows should be replaced by all-party debates.

Sky welcomed Friday’s ruling as “restoring freedom” to the media. There was no early word from Mediaset, the three-channel network owned by Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

Italian state broadcaster RAI, whose parliamentary watchdog had issued a norm mirroring Agcom’s, called a board meeting Monday to discuss the impact of the ruling.

The largest opposition group, the Democratic Party (PD), said “TAR’s ruling is a clear thumbs down for the gag order imposed by the right-wing members of the RAI watchdog”. PD media spokesman Paolo Gentiloni said the norm was not a proper application of Italy equal-time law which, he argued, says talk shows should not be subjected to the same restrictive regulations as political debates.

The norm was also against the constitutional right to freedom of information, he said.

Meanwhile, Holland’s NRC Handelsblad reports continuing judicial problems which continue to undermine the state of democracy in Italy.

Last weekend, the election bylaws were changed, very close to the regional elections. A local wing of Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party had failed to register in time for the elections, and the law was changed to ‘repair’ this. A judge however, has refused to recognise the new legislation. This led to Berlusconi accusing the judge of plotting against him.

Formally, Italian checks and balances are still in place. The parliament keeps an eye on the government, the president ensures that any laws passed by parliament are in line with the country’s constitution and the constitutional court can be asked to do the same. A diverse written press offers comment and insight into these processes. In theory, Italy’s rule of law is in excellent order. In theory, Italy is also a functioning democracy. It holds elections where new representatives can be elected.

The problem is that all these institutions find themselves under constant pressure. Judges and journalists are constantly under fire from government parties. Parliament and government have been infiltrated by the mafia.

According to Massimo Gianni, an analyst who writes for opposition daily La Repubblica, Berlusconi is playing a game of “smoke and mirrors in which appearances have replaced reality”. “According to Berlusconi, the rule of law is a pointless obstacle. The reign of confusion is preferable,” Gianni said.

Read more here.